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Canberra Today 27°/29° | Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review / ‘By The Sea’ (MA) *** and a half

By The Sea movieI WONDER what real-life spouses and Hollywood nobility Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt talk about when they get home from work, particularly when they’re working together. For Angelina wrote and directed “By The Sea” and plays its star opposite Brad.

I feel confident that their marriage transcends the travails and anxieties driving this drama of two people holidaying at a French coastal village in the 1970s.

Writer Roland has brought his notebook and typewriter but appears to have left his muse at home. Former dancer Vanessa does little more than lay around the hotel room, visit the local supermarket and wait for Roland to get home from the bar where he discusses life’s vicissitudes with proprietor Michel (Niels Arestrup).

Roland tolerates Vanessa’s lack of sexual enthusiasm out of love and hope that things will improve. Vanessa discovers a spy hole and begins to watch the couple in the adjoining suite (Melanie Laurent and Melvil Poupard) doing the honeymoon thing with gusto. Roland joins her, which does nothing for his erotic equanimity. Vanessa learns that the wife is pregnant. Aha, so that’s what’s bothering her. Is Roland firing blanks? Only one way to find out.

The film’s combined effect is agreeable yet a little short of overwhelming, gently-paced, visually handsome (with Malta standing in for France). Mrs Pitt, transcendentally beautiful, acts with delightful precision. A moustache that makes him look spiv-ish doesn’t diminish Mr Pitt’s acting chops.

At Capitol 6 and Dendy

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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